Published 1/2/2002 2:27 PM. UPI.
MIAMI, Jan. 2 (UPI) -- Outrage continued Wednesday in Cuba over the
conviction and sentencing last year of five Cuban spies for espionage activities
in south Florida including setting up Brothers to the Rescue for a MiG attack
that killed four Miami men.
Three were sentenced to life in prison.
The Castro regime has called out millions of Cubans for "Free the Five"
rallies, and the issue dominates the media.
A nightly round-table show, "In the Entrails of the Monster," airs
regular updates on the five prisoners, interviews with the families and letters
and poems sent from jail.
Cuba agrees that the five were part of a state-sponsored undercover
operation, but says they were not spying on the United States. Lazaro Barredo, a
leader of Cuba's National Assembly, said in a statement published Wednesday by
the St. Petersburg (Fla.) Times that instead they infiltrated militant
Cuban-American groups in Miami to protect Cuba from terrorism.
"The five never posed a risk to the national security of the United
States. In fact, the U.S. should thank us for what those young men did,"
Barredo said.
The Cubans claim Miami exiles have staged a series of terrorist attacks on
their country starting with the Bay of Pigs invasion in 1961, and including a
string of hotel bombings in 1997 that killed one tourist and injured several
others. Cuba claims 3,400 dead from U.S.-based terrorism since the Castro regime
began.
When U.S. District Judge Joan Lenard sentenced the last of the five
defendants last week, she said those alleged attacks should not be considered.
"Whenever terrorism is committed against innocents, it is evil and it
is wrong," she said.
But she added, "The terrorist acts of others cannot excuse the actions
of these defendants."
She then sentenced Antonio Guerrero to life in prison for espionage
conspiracy. Prosecutors said he worked as a ditch digger and as a sheet metal
worker to report on equipment at Boca Chica Naval Air Station at Key West.
Earlier last month, Gerardo Hernandez and Ramon Labanino were also sentenced
to life. Hernandez was charged with setting up the two Brothers to the Rescue
Cessna light planes for an attack by MiG fighters that killed four Miami
Cuban-Americans in 1996.
Rene Gonzalez got 15 years and Fernando Gonzalez, no relation, got a 19-year
sentence.
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